


Beauty on the Fire

by MysteryMuse



Series: Paradise Lost [5]
Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X
Genre: AU, Blood and Gore, Cannibalism hints, M/M, Maverick Zero - Freeform, Rare Pairings, Strange Vagaries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-03
Updated: 2014-08-03
Packaged: 2018-02-11 12:56:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2069034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysteryMuse/pseuds/MysteryMuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Throw the beauty on the fire, don't push too hard: Lumine decides to teach Zero about the value of pleasure and pain. Strange Vagaries spin-off, showing another angle of the New World.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beauty on the Fire

Lumine met Zero at the door to his room; Axl was busy elsewhere, so Zero had been planning to just slot into a recharger and sleep. He was surprised to be met by the white Reploid in the hall. The newgen glanced over Zero once, then gave him a small, coy smile. His visible eye glittered bright, eager gold. "As you have no other missions or duties tonight, Zero, I would like you to follow me, and attend me this evening for my personal pleasure. Do you object?"   
  
Zero's eyes widened, surprised (and Lumine could see the slight flash of calculation behind the eyes) but he shook his head and decided - no, he was completely fine with that. Earthlight rolled down his hair, along his thighs, down the slight curve of his hips as he moved his weight to one side. "No, Master Lumine. No objections. But why me?" He looked at Lumine, not combative, but level and expectant with an innate regality to rival Lumine's own.   
  
As their gazes locked, Lumine suddenly understood why X had been so helplessly drawn to Zero. The blond's allure was undeniable. "Because you are beautiful and belong to me, and I would like to enjoy my possessions now and then. I wish to feel the strength of you and test the depth of your obedience to me." Lumine reached out and touched Zero's softly blushing face once, trawling feather-light touches along his cheeks and touching briefly his lips. Zero yielded, closing his eyes, calm and controlled and ready to obey. His lips were warm and soft, and Lumine decided they were worthy.  
  
He drifted closer, touched the pads of his fingers against Zero's chin, and craned in to kiss him. Zero tilted his head, just slightly, allowing the newgen better access to his mouth, and gave way as Lumine's tongue slid between his lips. His body remained still, his energy placid and self-contained. He tasted completely different from X, and Lumine realized that although he was obedient, he was holding much of himself in reserve.   
  
"Interesting," Lumine said, after he pulled back, "You hold yourself close, even in an intimate moment. I feel how much you confine yourself. Is it from instinct, training, or fear, Zero?"   
  
Zero chuckled softly, closing his eyes. "Instinct," he replied, "Not fear. I'm not afraid of you. I'm not afraid of pleasure, either - it just doesn't mean much to me."   
  
Lumine smiled darkly. "I see. It doesn't motivate you, you mean." His voice dipped down, amused. "You're very new, so perhaps you just don't understand the value of these things yet." The newgen stroked the palm of his hand down the curve of Zero's back, letting his hand come to rest at the base of Zero's spine. He extended his everpresent light into Zero's body, pulling him a few inches off the floor and into his sphere of influence. He brushed against Zero's system through the aura, feeling Zero's corebeat accelerating at the mental and physical touches. "Tell me then, Zero: if you're indifferent to pleasure, what about pain?"  
  
The newgen expected Zero to read it as a threat - it was hard to consciously release the memory of Zero as a combative Hunter - but Zero just shrugged, "Same, I guess. It's a word. It doesn't mean anything." He mirrored Lumine's gesture, casually placing a hand around Lumine's narrow hips.   
  
Lumine pulled Zero closer to his side, steering him with the hand on his back. "That won't do, Zero. These two forces, pain and pleasure, are immensely important for you to understand fully. Your capacity of receiving pleasure and your ability to endure suffering - these will shape your entire being and all your thinking. Believe me, this is not a point in which you can afford indifference. I would be completely irresponsible not to teach you both." Lumine rubbed Zero's back a little, sending white pulses into the other Reploid's body that rippled across his seams and inner conduit lines. "You will release yourself into my custody, starting now."    
  
Zero bit his lip and breathed out. "Yes, master." Lumine felt the blond's resistance lower, and his meshskin began to warm against Lumine's hand; he was allowing himself to feel being touched more strongly.     
  
Lumine kept his hand on Zero's back, and led him away.   
 

* * *

  
They went outside, far from the new world, into the shadowy dunes beyond the reach of sunlight or earthlight. Their own bodies provided the only illumination; Lumine's faint firefly glow and Zero's backlit jewels leaving blue and green trails dark in the as they drifted down, Zero's hair weightless around his shoulders. Lumine gestured briefly at a dune with his free hand, the other other wrapped around Zero's waist, and a wave of silent force rolled out, pushing the cold lunar sands aside to bare grey stone beneath.   
  
He brought Zero down to the scoured stone, lowering him gently and settling in over him, generating his own gravity to keep them both weighted together and in place. Zero's eyes were burning blue, brilliant points in the dark. He put his hands on Lumine's shoulderblades, uncertain.   
  
Lumine leaned down and kissed his forehead crystal, activating a backdoor command that completely banished Zero's armor - it all evaporated at once, 'shattering' into energy in a bright red ring that rose around them and dissipated, leaving Zero's slim inner body bared- black "skin", grey endoskeletal plates and conduits shining brightly with the living pulses of his body.   
  
Zero's eyes opened sharply, his core both went THUMP once, and Lumine chuckled soundlessly at the reaction, smiling down with a hint of teeth. [Oh, Zero, you didn't know I could do that, I suppose. Of course, since I built you with my own hands, I made sure that I could disarm you if I was forced to. You were calm before. Are you that reliant on your armor? Is that where your strength rests?]   
  
Zero frowned, lifting his head up, using an elbow to support his weight, neck tensing against the challenge Lumine was throwing him. [No.] His bodylines turned red, and he grabbed at the back of Lumine's neck, pushing himself up against the newgen's mouth - feeling Lumine giggling against his tongue as he bore down.   
  
[Then show me.]  
  
They fought a little in the kiss, Lumine sucking on Zero's tongue, wrestling with it, egging the blond on until they were biting, sucking, almost drawing blood with their teeth. Zero somehow managed to flip Lumine, and grabbed his wrists, pinning him against the stone, feeling trickles of dust between the newgen's armor and his fingertips. He was gasping in the vaccuum, lips open and bruised, struggling with something dark that had opened up inside him - a nameless darkness that was blooming behind his chest, thick and hard, like a poisonous flower.     
  
Lumine just smiled, broadly, and snaked a leg around the back of Zero's thighs, dragging his toe down toward Zero's knee. [That's hardly indifference,] the newgen purred in Zero's mind, pushing himself up into Zero's hips. [You don't like being challenged. Even with as little as you understand yourself right now, a part of you needs to dominate, doesn't it? I know what you're thinking. I can feel your mind. You want to put your fingers in and pull until I break in two. You want to see me bleeding. You want to rip my skin away from my body with your teeth. This is a part of your nature that can't be denied or reasoned away, Zero... You are a beast that hungers, a beast that feels, a beast that kills for glory and pleasure.]   
  
Zero shook his head frantically, eyes cramming shut, the burning glow visible through his eyelids, hair floating around him like a halo, breaking into drifting strands. [I don't want to hurt you.] He clenched down on Lumine's wrists- hard enough that the newgen's armor cracked under his fingers, ceratanium snapping like porcelain. [I could. I won't.]   
  
[Let me tell you a secret, Zero...] Lumine grabbed Zero's lower lip with his teeth and bit in again, hard enough to pierce the skin, sending tiny crimson droplets splattering between their faces. He stared hard at Zero's eyes the whole time. [This body is disposable. There's absolutely no reason for you to hold back in any way. If destroying me is your wish, then destroy me. Indulge yourself. This is one of the meanings of pleasure - to do as you wish without restraint. You have my permission.]   
  
Zero gasped emptily as his lip was torn, and he instinctively reached out, backhanded the newgen fiercely across one cheek, slamming him back to the ground. A surge of white light flashed up his back, a shudder of true desire, and he felt the dark thing in him coil and flex, so eager. He grabbed hold of the cracks he'd already made with his hands, gritted his teeth, and let the darkness flow through him - he grabbed and pulled, peeling apart Lumine's forearms in a spray of oil, sparks and broken armor shards.   
  
It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever felt. The cold feel of fluid on his hands, the splatter of vital fluids crashing across his face, the wild bucking of Lumine's body underneath him as he shrieked silently. The feel of metal bending and cables twisting and sparking under his grip. He pushed his hands in, and down, and stroked and pulled; his senses seemed to tighten, gaining a crystalline edge where everything shone.  
  
Zero's eyes melted slowly from blue to red, and he bent down to drive his canines into Lumine's neck and tear with all his might.   
  
_So, this is pleasure._  
  


* * *

  
Zero brushed the blood off his torn lips and sat backward heavily, on his knees on top of the carcass. Lumine had been stripped down to endoskeleton, torn to shreds, so savaged as to be nearly unrecognizable, his body scattered over the dunes. Zero tipped his head backward and let his gore-covered hands lay limp at his sides. He was breathing hard, breathing in nothing but vaccuum and darkness, fluxing between deep feral pride at his kill and terror at what he'd done, the ruin he'd inflicted with his own hands.    
  
He felt hands gently circling his waist, a bubble of light rolling forward and washing through him, cool and soothing against the raging heat that had consumed his body. Lumine rubbed his cheek against Zero's, smearing the blood between their skins. [Come back. Your enemy has fallen.]   
  
Zero's whole being seemed to snag on a hook and Lumine felt it, the sharp twisting of Zero's will, the swirl of shame and sadness that overtook him like a tidal wave. [I couldn't stop myself. I didn't want to.]   
  
Lumine tsked gently at Zero, took his wrists in his hands and nuzzled him again, tenderly. [It was not required that you should, and I did rather egg you on. You need to come to peace with this, because this magnificent impulse to destroy is a piece of what makes you unique among Reploids. This is not something to be feared, but it is an instinct you need to understand and harness effectively.  This is one kind of pleasure, and it also follows that it brings a certain kind of pain. These forces are always intertwined, at all times. Are you still indifferent to these?]   
  
The blond shook his head again, leaning back against Lumine, exhaling. [No. Now I see what you were trying to tell me.]   
  
[You see a fragment of the truth,] Lumine corrected, and pulled Zero up with him, leaving the shattered corpse abandoned, head lifting as he rose them far above the moon. [This is just one facet of pain and pleasure. There are many more for you to experience.]   
  
Zero was uplifted in Lumine's arms, and he felt strangely like he was leaving a piece of himself behind with the body he'd destroyed, like he was rising out of his own form, being pulled to a different level of consciousness. The black thing in him was silent, retreated, weightless. [What are you planning to make me into?] he murmured against Lumine's will, shaken and awed.   
  
[The true Zero,] Lumine answered as he carried Zero back into the new world.    
  


**Author's Note:**

> This one is a bit strange, but I think with this bit out of the way and the scenario setup established, future chapters (if I write them) can be a bit less weird and a little more like the porn I usually write ;D One of the reason Vagaries exists is to set up situations like this where I can throw odd pairs together and see what comes out of it. I think there's something to this one that's worth looking into more...


End file.
